A DOCTOR who received a sick boy into hospital said yesterday the contrast in his condition with what she had expected struck her when he was brought into a ward dying.

A DOCTOR who received a sick boy into hospital said yesterday the contrast in his condition with what she had expected struck her when he was brought into a ward dying.

Robbie Powell, 10, of Ystradgynlais, suffered two heart attacks and died within hours of arriving at hospital on April 17, 1990.

Dr Alison Lilley was the senior house officer who admitted Robbie to Morriston Hospital, Swansea, after speaking to his GP an hour earlier.

An inquest jury at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, near Carmarthen, was told yesterday that the doctor was expecting a child who was far less ill.

She had spoken with Dr Nicola Flower, the boy's GP, on the phone before his admission and was given a brief outline of his condition.

According to notes she made soon afterwards Dr Lilley was expecting a child who had vomited that day and who had a suspected chest complaint.

The contrast in his condition was so great the phone call was still fresh in her mind when she was first asked to give a statement 12 years later.

Previously the inquest had heard that William and Dianne Powell, Robbie's parents, had battled with the GP to even get him admitted to hospital.

Dr Flower had visited Robbie at home twice on the day he died and could find nothing seriously wrong with him.

Four other GPs from the same local surgery had also seen him five times in the two weeks before he died, and had reached the same conclusion.

But Robbie had been admitted to the same hospital four months before and a consultant then had ordered a test for Addison's disease.

However, the critical test was never carried out and doctors later diagnosed gastroenteritis and discharged him when he appeared to recover.

A post-mortem later revealed he had died of Addison's disease - a rare, though treatable, condition which affects the adrenal cortex.

The jury has heard that Robbie's parents grew increasingly frantic as he lost weight, vomited his food, grew lethargic and blacked out in the fortnight before he died.

Mr Powell has told them that he was unhappy with the care Robbie received in the days before his death. He claims Dr Flower only admitted his son to hospital after a "heated argument", something she denies, and refused to arrange for an ambulance to take him.

Dr Lilley told the court yesterday that because of the events on April 17, 1990, "a lot of the whole evening has stuck in my mind".

Questioned by Michael Powers QC, representing Mrs Powell, she agreed she remembered the conversation with the GP because of the contrast in Robbie's appearance on arrival.

Mr Powers said, "My understanding is that the appraisal you were given by the GP 45 minutes or an hour earlier did not fit with the boy on arrival.

"That is why the conversation has stuck in your mind after all these years."